PRO FOOTBALL; For Packers' Sharpe, the Hurt Had Better Go Away Soon

Sterling Sharpe is so good that he has just become the first receiver in National Football League history to catch at least 100 passes a season for two straight seasons. He is so good that he achieved that without practicing during the last half of this season because of an insidious injury known as turf toe.

If the Packers are to have any chance in Sunday's playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys -- the Cowboys are two-touchdown favorites at home -- Sharpe must be at his best. Instead, at least physically, he is at his worst.

This week, as usual, he has attended team meetings, walked a treadmill and ridden a stationary bicycle. He has been there for the Packers' practice at their indoor facility across from Lambeau Field, but he has only watched and absorbed. For him, there have been no drills, no 9-on-7, no contact, no anything.

An ordinary player could not play games without practicing because there would be no hardened body or timing or repetitions. Sharpe is not ordinary. For example, despite constant pain during last Saturday's 28-24 playoff victory over the Detroit Lions, he caught three touchdown passes from Brett Favre, including the game-winning 40-yarder with 55 seconds remaining. A Turnaround

After the game, Sharpe did a strange thing. He talked with the news media, which he had not done since early in his second season (this is his sixth). Although he has never said so publicly, he had taken a vow of silence because he felt reporters had denigrated him after a tentative rookie season. He talked again Monday on Coach Mike Holmgren's weekly television show. Though he has not spoken since, what he said Saturday and Monday about his injury was startling.

Turf toe is a hyperextension. His left big toe is swollen and painful and needs something he cannot give it now: rest.

"I wear a size 8 1/2 or size 9," he said, "and I can't wear that size shoe. I have to wear a 10 on my left leg. It's very painful to go out and try and play. You're not able to do the things you're accustomed to doing. You really can't go out and be the type player that you want to be. You've got to try and improvise.

"I can't practice, can't run. I just take pain-killers and see what happens. I'm pretty beat down. I go through this every week. You sit around and rest all week, and hopefully I can be ready to go against Dallas."

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"He's a very tough guy," said Tootie Robbins, an offensive tackle. "A lot of people couldn't play with that pain. What he does rubs off on everyone else."

Holmgren said Sharpe continually amazed him.

"Just the fact that he played Saturday was amazing," Holmgren said. "I've never been around a player who hasn't practiced and has been as efficient as he was. I think the fact that he doesn't practice has hurt on occasion, but he has absorbed the offense without running the plays. I'm not sure many people could do that, but he's a very bright guy."

Holmgren is one of several former San Francisco 49ers assistants around the league who have adopted the 49ers' short passing game. While Favre has a strong arm -- his game-winning pass against the Lions traveled 55 or 60 yards -- the Packers like to hit Sharpe on short slants that he can turn into big gains.

As Sharpe said Monday: "I don't like catching the balls from Brett that are 40-yarders. I like catching the 4-yarders."

"A lot of people don't think he's fast," Butler said, "and then he races by you. This offense is not designed to go 80 yards on one pass, but he's so strong he can make a short pass into an 80-yard play -- when he's healthy."

In the Packers' fourth game of the season, they took a 36-14 beating from the Cowboys in Texas. Dallas blanketed Sharpe and held him to 4 catches for 34 yards and no touchdowns.

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A version of this article appears in print on January 14, 1994, on Page B00009 of the National edition with the headline: PRO FOOTBALL; For Packers' Sharpe, the Hurt Had Better Go Away Soon. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe